Justice Schanfarber

Dignity, 2020

48x53"

Mixed media assemblage

ARTIST STATEMENT

The wood at the center is cedar, a discarded piece of dunnage from a tree that defines the place I live, used to protect or facilitate the commerce of something unknown and since gone. This piece of wood made an immediate impact on me so I took it home and spent some time with it. It came to signify something, something dignified, a particular dignity that can come with age and even decay, with being used by life and showing said use.

Surfaces have been worn and worn away, fibers that were not integral have been digested; what remains is concentrated, an essence of character. It took me several months to recognize this, and then I couldn’t see it otherwise.

How could I emphasize what I was seeing, bring it out, reveal it?

As a form, the triptych has special qualities, reminders of all to do (and it’s a lot!) with thirds and threes, especially third paths, third ways, and the third possibilities that jump rail and disrupt the common dualities of the day.

The painted white canvasses elevate, like wings (angel wings?), that which is clearly on the path of descent, holding the motion in place, that the assembly might now hover in sight.

BIO

Justice Schanfarber is an emerging contemporary abstract artist working in paint and assemblage. He has a background in improvised and experimental sound mediums, performance, and recording beginning in 1990.

For the past decade Justice has worked as a couples therapist; the tensions and dramas that he has witnessed in close proximity to intimate human relationships are translated into the visual mediums of his artwork.

As a lifelong member of the human and non-human communities of Coastal British Columbia, Justice has long been fascinated and concerned with the life and use of the trees that help define the region. His current work includes found and salvaged wood products, and seeks to reveal the character embedded in their histories, real and imagined.

Justice lives and works in Campbell River, on Vancouver Island, BC.